Fitness blog: Entry 12 Classical yoga

Well, Classical yoga at Queensmead on Saturday was a very different experience to the whole range of other classes I have tried out so far. That's probably stating the obvious, but, in a way I was glad to being doing exercise that didn't involve getting out of breath.

It was everything I expected it to be - apart from the fact that there were only six people there! I thought it would be absolutely rammed. I was under the impression everyone was into yoga nowadays.

It was a much nicer experience being in a small group though, because the instructor gave everyone individual attention. As soon as I walked in she asked me my name and asked why I was trying out yoga, and she seemed to know about everyone else's body problems.

When I booked the class, however, I forgot that yoga was all about the breathing. I just remembered it being about flexibility.

The breathing thing was very different to me, which is quite amusing because that's the one thing you'd expect human beings to be able to do without needing advise.

At one point I felt like I was going to faint because we were doing an exercise where you had to breath in and out as fast as you could for about a minute - I think.

The instructor did say that you get better at it with practice though, which made me feel a bit better about the slow pace I was going at.

We had to twist our bodies into lots of awkward positions and stretch our muscles a lot, so I know if I keep it up I will be a lot more supple in a fairly short amount of time.

We also did a breathing exercise that is meant to cure everything, from depression to migraines. It involved breathing in through one nostril and then breathing out through the other. I must admit, I wasn't completely convinced.

It was quite a relaxing experience, so when I'm not in the mood to kick and punch things I think I'll definitely go back.

My next challenge (almost coming to the end now) is Fighting fit at Highgrove.